I am not going to go through the entire list, even though it did have me laughing at some funny scenes from Wayne’s World and Talladega Nights, but I do want to discuss whether product placement still has value. Do brands benefit from having their products in shows and movies? Does product placement have an effect on consumer’s spending habits? There must be some type of return or companies wouldn’t continue to shell out large sums of money to get their products in these shows or movies and even video games now, I am just having trouble seeing it. Are consumers even paying attention to these products when they show up, do they care about what type of car the characters are driving or what type of beer they order in a scene? It seems that, as an audience, we are so used to product placement that we don’t pay any attention to it. Not to mention the second screen element of smart phones and tablets being used while watching. There isn’t a novelty to seeing products anymore; we expect that to happen. It actually stands out more when they use fake products. So if there is nothing special about seeing the products being uses, why do companies continue to pay big money for their product to be there, sometimes for a split second?

The answer must be… they still see a return. Obviously I do not have access to all the data companies are looking at, but they must have figures that show an ROI when they have products in movies or shows. One of the most notable product placements is Reese’s Pieces being used in ET. Reese’s saw an increase in sales of 65% after their product was in the movie. This doesn’t always happen, but even if companies get just a portion of that percent it could pay for itself; and you just might get lucky like Reese’s did and get a huge return from it.

I don’t see product placement going away any time soon and we may not pay attention to it like we used to, but as long as companies see a benefit and believe it has value, you will continue to see name brand products showing up in television shows and movies.

Bonus: For more on this I have to recommend The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a 2011 documentary film about product placement, marketing and advertising in movies and TV shows, directed by Morgan Spurlock.

Also, one of my favorite product placement scenes: Wayne’s World

Author: Gary Balakoff

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It is called the ProGlide FlexBall and it is Gillette’s latest razor innovation. As always they have a huge marketing and advertising campaign to launch the new razor. They are even getting some praise for the business model they are using and how it such a departure from their norm. However after reading the article and seeing some of the commercials for Gillette’s new razor something bothered me and it is something that always bothers me when Gillette advertises a new product. They always rip on their own preexisting product to make the new one look better.

I understand that comparison ads are a regular strategy used by many companies, but typically these are done comparing Company A’s new product to Company B’s new product to make A’s look better. Gillette, however, likes to compare their new product to their old product and make their old product look bad. They did it with Sensor vs Mach 3, Mach 3 vs Fusion, Fusion vs ProGlide and as the video below shows, ProGlide vs ProGlide Flexball.

Gillette does make a great product, I should know I use the Fusion, but are they going to tell me that all other companies make such inferior products that they have to use their own products vs each other to get the point across? Gillette does have innovative products, even their older models stand up over time, so why bash these older products just to make sales with the new ones? As long as I have worked in marketing, I never thought about being negative towards one of my own products and I still don’t agree with this strategy. Gillette obviously doesn’t have a problem with it and I am sure when their next great innovation comes out The FlexBall will find itself on the other side of the comparison.

Author: Gary Balakoff

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One of the better campaigns out right now is AT&T’s It’s Not Complicated kids campaign. They are some of my favorite commercials running at this time. I love the off-the-cuff feel and how the kids seem to drive the conversations. Yes, I have read articles talking about how the commercials are not completely adlib and that there is a basic scripted idea. However the articles also mentioned that the directors will let the kids talk and see where it goes, a film everything and see what there is in the end approach. Obviously the kids steal the show, but the actor (Beck Bennett) is just as funny and delivers the right amount of lines to enhance the comedic level without overshadowing the kid’s performances.

These two crack me up, but just weren’t funny enough to make my top 3. They were good enough that I had to at least mention them, so feel free to click the links and view them.

Number 3: More

The girl’s rambling about why someone would want more seems to go nowhere, but strangely enough I feel like I can follow her thinking. This sediment is backed up by Beck’s nicely placed line “I follow you”.

Number 2: Werewolf

The little girl’s statement about becoming a werewolf is so random. She goes on and on about becoming a werewolf as an example for why it is better to be fast. The rambling in this spot actually does go nowhere, but is funny enough that I don’t really care. My favorite part being when she makes the growling noise and then translates it. Beck delivers a perfectly timed and confused sounding “what?” that wraps it up nicely.

and Number 1: Tree House

The disco comment is funny but the little boy’s delivery when he is talking about the T.V. is amazing and such a representation of how kids communicate (trust me I have a 3 year old boy of my own). That boy steals the show. Not to mention that he is talking about putting a flat screen in a tree house, which is funny enough. This commercial makes me laugh every time I see it, even when I looked up the clip for this post.

If you are interested, there is a short behind the scenes video on the making of these commercials HERE.

Author: Gary Balakoff

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I think billboards are such an underutilized and underappreciated medium. Too often people ignore their value or overlook the creative opportunities they can provide. For lack of a better term, billboards have been type cast and many feel are only good for advertising your companies contact information.

This is why I think they offer an opportunity to stand out and get noticed and why I love seeing outside the box billboard concepts. I recently came across two examples on AdFreak (here and here) that I think do a great job of standing out and go beyond the boring billboard stereotype.

1. McDonalds Chalkboard Menu Billboard
Chalkboard menus can be creative in their own right, but taking that concept and putting it on a billboard scale is impressive. I like this concept for a few reasons. First, it’s creativeness, taking a chalk menu and putting it somewhere it doesn’t really belong. Who thinks to do hand drawn chalk boards at that size. Second, the commitment to the concept, they could have just done a drawing and when it faded, take it down or then draw a new one. No, they changed it out two times a day to keep it fresh and make a statement. This leads to my third point, it ties so nicely into their new fresh menu items. When I think of chalkboard menus it makes me think of small local sandwich shops. Also using chalk gives it a real rustic and homemade feel, not some mass produced piece, which is what McDonalds seems to be going for with its new items.

2. Orphea Bug Spray
I like this one because it takes a billboard and makes it what I am going to call indirectly interactive (a mouthful I know). As an observer there is an interactive quality to it. I understand that an individual cannot directly do anything with the billboard, but the real life changes that take place because of the bugs sticking can be immediately observed. As a passerby you can clearly see the changes taking place and have an immediate reaction to those changes. Another thing that I really like about this billboard is how clearly it demonstrates the purpose of the product. The bug spray claims to kill bugs and its billboard illustrates the bug spray killing bugs.

The next time you are running a campaign; don’t underestimate using a billboard for your advertising. If you can come up with an outside the box idea like one of these, it just might help you stand out.